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Everytime I go to make a ragu for bolognese I spend ages looking for recipes, and there’s so many different ones out there. When I do find one I like, I fail to bookmark it – so this time, I’ve made my own recipe based off many others, and decided to write it down. I’m doing this mostly for myself, but I thought I’d do it on my blog so that others might find ways to improve it for me. A little disclaimer – I don’t know if this is a ‘correct’ ragu recipe, or if I’m doing things a chef would cry at, I just know I like this recipe – and I hope someone else might too!

You will need:

6 rashers of bacon

250 grams of mince pork

800 grams of mince beef

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

2 onions

4 cloves of garlic

100 grams of button mushrooms

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

75ml of tomato puree

1/3 a bottle of red wine

1 tspn oregano

1 tspn mixed herbs

1 tspn ground black pepper

Before starting, chop the onion, celery and carrots into small cubes, and set aside.

Pre-heat a thick bottomed pan to a medium heat, and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Cut the bacon into small squares, add it to the pan, allowing it to render for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the prepared vegetables and cook them until they are soft, which is about 5-10 minutes. A few minutes into this, add the garlic, I crushed mine, but I often just chop it.

Turn the heat up a little, and add the pork, stir well, and a minute later add the beef. Once all the meet is browned, add 1/3 of the bottle of red wine – perhaps a splash more, and reduce this down for a while – about 10 minutes should do it. Add both tins of tomatoes, the herbs, the pepper, the puree. Stir well. The photo below shows the bolognese before reducing, so it looks quite wet still.

Chop the button mushrooms up if you prefer them like that, and throw them in. Let this cook until it’s at the desired thickness, I cooked mine for about 2 hours after adding the final ingredients. I do not add salt at any point, as the pork/bacon are pretty salty – however it’s important to taste things as you go.

If you want to cook for longer, just add a little water and let it cook longer. It tastes a lot better after it’s been resting for a while, so cook it several hours before you intend to eat it. It also freezes well, so make a batch, let it sit on the side till it’s cool though, then divide it up and throw some of it in the freezer.

A friend has suggested that tomato puree shouldn’t be used, and instead a 3rd tin of tomatoes would be better, and just allow more cooking time to reduce it down. I’ve not tried this yet though